She stripped out of her shirt, revealing the gaping hole. Detailed anatomy lessons had been part of her training, designed to make her a more efficient soldier. Tera concluded that she shouldn’t be standing much less trying to administer first aid. Why had her wound stopped bleeding?
Tera gingerly probed her injury. She could feel a gelatinous mass that gave way under her searching fingers. There still was no pain. Confusion growing, she poked around the wound and touched solid material. Was it bone? No, it felt like something else. Harder. Colder.
And that’s when it hit her. This wasn’t muscle tissue, it was sacs of polymer gel. She pulled the skin back, revealing metal. She froze as a chilling, world-shattering insight slashed through her mind.
She wasn’t bleeding out because she only had a surface circulatory system
She didn’t feel pain because there were no nerve endings to send signals to her brain.
The bullet hadn’t killed her because she wasn’t really alive.
Tera Manson, age 29, sworn member of the HDL and freedom fighter in the war against Synthetika, was a machine.
A mech.
The enemy.
With this chilling realization, the first waves of madness swept all other thoughts aside.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DESPITE HERSELF, MALVEAUX had listened to Tera’s story in rapt fascination. The glimpse into the killer mech’s reality filled her with existential horror.
Tera balled her fists, her jaw set tight. “Their plan was ingenious. Convince a mech of its humanity, make a machine believe it was a member of the HDL and pit it against its creators. They wrote a whole life for me. Fake memories of a childhood never lived, joining the HDL, being trained by their handlers—all with the sole purpose of making me hate my own kind.”
“They wanted you to attack Synthetika,” Malveaux said.
“The perfect terrorist to let loose on their enemy. Imagine the headline. Mech walks into Synthetika and goes on a killing spree. Of course no one would know this mech believed herself to be a member of the HDL. It would be a story that not even Synthetika could bury.”
“But you discovered you weren’t human. Guess that threw a wrench in the HDL’s plans.”
Tera nodded. “Understandably I didn’t take it well. All I cared about was destroying those who did this to me. They created the perfect killer, after all.”
Keep her talking, thought Malveaux. Her only hope was to buy herself time until she was rescued or found an opportunity to escape.
“How did you find out about the mind-upload machine? I’m guessing that wasn’t part of your little backstory.”
“It was a technology Dr. Cain had worked on in the past but never quite cracked. In the end, all he needed was to be properly motivated.”
Dr. Aria Del, Malveaux thought. It was all beginning to come together in her mind. Tera had tracked Dr. Gold and Dr. Shoji, cutting a deadly swath through her creators. Dehumanizing them the same way their deception had dehumanized Tera. She guessed the messages and videos left behind at the crime scenes were driven by Tera’s need to explain her actions to the world…and perhaps to herself.
“My body is a machine but my soul is human and filled with hatred for my own kind,” Tera said. “I can’t go on like this. I want to be human.” She paused and added, “I want to be you.”
Malveaux blanched. There was a twisted logic to Tera’s plan. She needed to make the lie become reality. And she’d found the vessel to achieve her goal.
“You’re not going to get away with this.”
“I’ve studied you, your habits, your mannerisms. You’re guarded, closed off, disconnected. You live your life as if you were already a machine.”
The words stung. Another thought occurred to her. Where was her partner? Could he still be in there somewhere, two programs sharing the same body? If so, could she perhaps reach him?
Almost as if Tera had read her thoughts, she smiled and said, ”If you’re wondering what happened to Adam, it’s quite simple. I overwrote his program when I uploaded myself into his mech brain. The same way my consciousness will erase yours.”
It all made sense now. Tera had pulled off a show in the precinct knowing Adam would interface with the system. A calculated lure so she could hijack his body. Tera had even encouraged them to return to Cain’s workshop knowing that by the time they did, she’d be in control of Adam’s body. She’d played them from the beginning.
Tera leaned closer. “Once the transfer is complete, I’ll destroy this machine body and claim Adam turned on me. It will be my first step toward ridding the world of mechs.”
“What if the mind transfer doesn’t work?”
“It will work.” There was a grim certainty to Tera’s words. Malveaux realized that Tera had already done a trial run. “You tested it on Cain?”
“Ironic, isn’t it? A simple X-2 overriding the mind of a genius.” A forlorn quality crept into Tera’s voice. There was madness there, but also pain. “I tried to be a machine. I tried to accept what I was. It didn’t work out.”
Malveaux shuddered. “What happens to me?”
“The digital data of my mind will override your thoughts the way the X-2 erased Cain. I’m sorry, but there is no other way. It’s nothing personal.”
Pushing her fear aside and digging into her anger, Malveaux said, “You will never know what it means to be truly human.”
“I’m afraid you’re wrong. My creators gave me all the qualities that have allowed self-reflective organic life to scale the evolutionary ladder: A will to survive and the capacity to kill.”
Tera activated the upload sequence, and Cain’s mind transfer machine powered to life. All Tera had to do was to slip into the other end of the device and begin the process. Malveaux struggled against the restraints. God, she needed to get out of this thing! But how?
Tera’s gaze flashed with triumph. Malveaux braced herself, knowing that this was the end, but then the humming machine grew still and the overhead lights went dark.
Someone had turned off the power.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ADAM FOUND HIMSELF inside a world of disembodied data. The police precinct’s network, with its intricate pathways, had become his new reality. For a moment, he fought the temptation to plunge into the void and allow his own data to merge with the multitude of programs running through the precinct’s mainframe. But some part of him was unwilling to let go, clinging steadfastly to the programming parameters that defined his identity. With excruciating effort, Adam managed to coax coherent thought from the binary chaos. He had to remember…remember what happened…
Remember who he was…
He was Adam. The first X-3. The android policeman.
His primary directives were to uphold the law, to save innocent lives and to protect his partner.
And his partner was in danger.
Remembering his purpose brought back the chain of events that had put him in his current predicament. He’d initially interfaced with the police mainframe in the hopes of restoring control over the precinct, but it turned out to be a trap. Once inside the system, he had found Tera waiting for him.
A surge of data had rushed through his power strip as Tera uploaded herself into his unit. A quick diagnostic informed him that the incoming wave of code would override his own data. There was only one slim chance at survival. He would have to download himself into the precinct mainframe before Tera’s program could erase him for good.
As he abandoned the hardware of his brain matrix, he briefly glimpsed Tera’s digital consciousness and what he saw filled him with a terrible dread.
Darkness and silence followed.
Once Tera completed her upload, she disconnected from the police mainframe, leaving him trapped inside the system. His mind relentlessly searched for a way out. Initially, he considered uploading himself into Tera’s old body but she had fried her own systems before disengaging. He was trapped in the precinct mainframe, just another program in a s
ea of information. How could he make the officers aware of his presence inside the computer? He had to warn Malveaux and let her know that Tera was controlling his body before it was too late.
His first attempts at reaching out to the officers were failures. He managed to send stray words or images to their screens, but they only confused the handful of officers who spotted them on their terminals. Focusing more deeply on the task, he willed four words into existence.
MY NAME IS ADAM.
It was the best he could come up with. And it seemed to work. The captain appeared and moments later, an X-2 interfaced with the system. As soon as the android connected with the mainframe, Adam uploaded himself into the unit. There was a rush of motion, terabytes of data hurtling down a digital stream. The world returned to normal and he found himself back in physical reality. His computer consciousness remained intact, but he was now inside an X-2’s chassis.
The size of his data nearly overwhelmed the hardware of the X-2s brain matrix. The unit didn’t possess many of the features of an X-3, but it was a step up from the disembodied horror he’d experienced. He was taking control over the X-2 unit but made it a point not to override its code. Hopefully once this was over, Synthetika would find a way to put his mind back into his old body—or at least an identical X-3 chassis and restore the X-2.
Adam quickly informed Sadao what happened and stressed that time was of the essence. Malveaux had already left the precinct with the impostor, but he knew where they were headed. There was no time to get a team together; every second was precious. His partner was in mortal danger.
Adam could tell Sadao was trying to make sense of it all, but his mistrust was palpable. There was no time to convince the man. He darted toward the basement structure. The few officers who tried to stop him were easily cast aside.
He made it to the garage, jumped into a cruiser, and tore off into the night. Two squad cars gave chase but he quickly lost them, unable to keep up with his aggressive driving. It took him exactly twenty minutes to reach the salvage yard and another five minutes to make his way into the workshop and discover the staircase that led into Cain’s secret lab. He had armed himself with one of the heavy-duty pulse rifles he’d found in the cruiser. His enhanced hearing picked up voices below. One of them was his.
“Their plan was ingenious,” Tera was saying. “Convince a mech of its humanity and pit it against its creators.”
Ingenious indeed. And now Tera was about to upload her digital consciousness into Malveaux. Adam couldn’t let her go through with it. He needed to turn off the mind-upload machine and stop the transfer before it was too late.
Taking decisive action, he contacted Sadao on his internal comlink. There was a protracted silence on the other end before Sadao said the words Adam wanted to hear: “What do you need?”
“Have the city turn off the power inside Cain’s workshop.”
“Are you crazy? You’re talking about shutting down all of Treasure Island.”
“Do it or Malveaux is dead.”
Something about the grim authority of his words seemed to reach the captain. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The line went silent.
Pulse weapon ready, Adam passed the operating table with the deactivated robot body and the shelves of spare parts. His gaze remained riveted on the secret doorway and the staircase beyond. If Sadao failed to come through for him, he’d have to descend into the basement and try to take out the machine with blasts from his pulse weapon.
It would be a short fight that wouldn’t end well for him or Malveaux. This basic X-2 shell was no match for his combat-ready X-3 body. He might get lucky and squeeze off a shot or two, but Tera would easily defeat him. His best chance was to distract her. The mind-upload machine represented Tera’s escape, a means of changing her destiny and regaining her identity. Take it away from her and she might lose her equilibrium.
The overhead lights went out and the warehouse grew dark. Sadao had come through. The next phase of the plan involved Tera losing it and bursting from the staircase, driven by pure emotion. With any luck, a precision headshot from the pulse rifle in his hands would stop her dead in her tracks.
As Adam readied himself for the battle ahead, he sensed movement behind him. He spun around, but too late. Two hands grabbed him with devastating force and sent him flying into the shelves. The pulse weapon hit the floor.
X-2 heads rained down on him from the shelves, forming a grisly tableau as they rolled through the workshop. Adam whirled toward his attacker. The faceless android, previously splayed on the operating table, now stood before him. The eyes inside the robot skull gleamed a fiery red as the X-2 closed in.
He realized that Tera must have used her link-up ability to remotely access the X-2. Adam tried to dart aside, but the X-2’s flattened palm blasted out at his face. Crack! One, two, three pneumatic blows sent Adam reeling.
The X-2 came in for another attack, but this time Adam was prepared. His right leg swept out, toppling the X-2. His opponent went with the momentum of the fall and slipped into a cartwheel, touching down with balletic grace next to Adam’s pulse rifle, hand snatching the weapon in one fluid motion. The pulse rifle flashed as the X-2 emptied a series of searing blasts into Adam, one blazing shot after another, dicing his chest to tatters.
Adam tried to get up but his systems weren’t responding. Electricity sparkled and crackled. Footsteps echoed and he twisted his head, looking up at…
Himself.
His old body snatched his hand in a vice-like grip and pulled. He could feel the metal twisting and tearing as Tera tore off his arm in one powerful motion. There was a rain of sparks and a tangle of short-circuiting wires. Tera swung the severed robot arm like a baseball bat at him, sending him backward, and he crashed into the operating table. Reality fritzed, and the world went dark for a few seconds before crackling back into existence. Tera loomed over him. And that’s when he saw a familiar figure emerging from the secret staircase.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE OVERHEAD LIGHTS flickered off, drenching the basement into darkness. For a moment Malveaux was too shocked to react, her world reduced to her furiously beating heart. As the mind-upload machine powered down, the restraints slid back and she was able to move her arms and legs again. Tera had gone silent in the dark. What was happening?
Malveaux didn’t believe in coincidences and guessed help was on the way. Hope spiked inside of her and propelled her into motion. She heard receding footsteps followed by the sound of someone climbing the stairs. Tera was headed upstairs.
Taking a deep breath, Malveaux climbed out of the iron coffin. She clung to the machine as she straightened. The basement was pitch black, but she used the light from her wristcomm to show her the way back to the stairs.
The beam of light swept the floor and found the pulse rifle Tera had knocked out of her hands. Malveaux snatched the pulse rifle, holding it tight to her body and climbed the steps. Sounds of fighting drifted toward her, motivating Malveaux to quicken her pace. She guessed that Adam had been the one to rescue her, and now it was her turn to rescue him.
Less than a minute later, she reached Dr. Cain’s mech workshop. She saw Tera-as-Adam and the faceless X-2 looming over a downed X-2 unit, a pulse weapon aimed at its head. Studying the X-2 on the floor, she somehow knew it had to be Adam. He must’ve uploaded his mind into the unit the same way Tera had done with Adam. She recalled Adam saying that a direct hit to his head could destroy his personality matrix and knew what needed to be done.
She aimed the weapon straight at Tera’s head. She refused to look at Adam’s familiar features; if she did, her hand would start to shake. They would be able to transfer his data into another X-3 body. Everything would be okay.
“Born a slave, always a slave, mech.” Tera said.
“He has a name, bitch” Malveaux snarled.
As Tera whirled toward her, Malveaux pulled the trigger. Hot energy seared the warehouse. With one powerful blast, the shot ripped
her head from its torso. For a beat the headless robot body stood there before it collapsed next to the downed X-2.
Adam’s head, still holding Tera’s consciousness, rolled over the floor, coming to a stop near the other X-2 heads that had tumbled from the shelves earlier. The faceless X-2 previously under Tera’s control crumpled.
Malveaux approached cautiously. She spotted the sizzling X-2 on the ground. It had to be her partner.
“Adam?”
“Inspector Malveaux.”
She offered her hand and pulled Adam back to his feet.
They stepped up to Tera’s head. With horror, Malveaux realized that there was still life in those features. The machine was desperately mouthing words, repeating the same phrase: “I am human. I am human. I am human.”
The words suddenly emanated from all the heads in the workshop, almost as if Tera was hoping to hack the nearest unit but failing to establish contact. A desperate attempt to preserve her data, doomed to failure.
The voice trailed off and grew silent.
Would they be able to repair Tera? Or was she gone for good? Malveaux didn’t now. Greater minds than hers would have to answer those questions.
Sirens bashed the night as Malveaux and Adam staggered out of the workshop, leaving the remains of the killer android behind.
***
Malveaux stood in the dying, paling night as rain pelted her face. Hours had passed since the battle in the warehouse. Adam - still inside the X2 - flanked her as they watched the AI-TAC troopers moving in and out of Cain’s warehouse. Synthetika’s new army had showed up an hour after the cops arrived and their hovership menacingly circled the decrepit warehouse. Undoubtedly Synthetika would be all over the mind-upload machine. Countless hours and millions of dollars would be spent to decipher the technology’s secrets. The idea that they might try to use it themselves filled Malveaux with raw fear.
Silicon Dawn (Silicon Series Book 0) Page 12
